Back in the day

Viewed by many to be the result of a period of factional infighting and religious hysteria, the witch trials of Puritanical Salem Village, Massachusetts, led to the executions of 20 people (14 women, 6 men) and the imprisonment of nearly 200 accused witches. Even after the trials ended, people who had previously been found not guilty of witchcraft remained in prison, held until they paid their jail fees. What is "spectral evidence," and how did it play a role in the witch trials?

Feature

Despite a century of study, researchers can agree on the decipherment of only a single phrase of Proto-Sinaitic script, a Middle Bronze Age alphabet dating to 1500 BCE. The Proto-Sinaitic script is one of two similar undeciphered scripts dated to that period and believed to be ancestral to nearly all modern alphabets. Many experts believe the language of Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions is Semitic, and cite the one phrase that was interpreted as proof of this hypothesis. What is the phrase?

Born on a day like today

Rabin was an Israeli general, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. He played a leading role in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1948 and 1967 wars and retired to pursue a diplomatic post in 1968. In 1974, Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel. He served two terms as prime minister, but his political career was cut short when he was assassinated in 1995, while attending a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Why did Yigal Amir decide to assassinate Rabin?